cam chain skiped tooth how bad?

[first timer]

I was working on my 78/1000 and noticed one of my teeth on the exhaust cam was kinda mashed down a little, so I did some investigating and found that that my exhaust cam was retarded one tooth . I counted the pins and you need to have 20 pins between the marks on the cam sprocket, I had only 19 pins.

I have since swapped out the exhaust cam with another one from another 1k motor i have that had a nicer sprocket and set the cam timing as per the book to 20 pins. (Don?t worry I followed the service manual putting it all back)

MY QUESION IS:

Could major damage been done to the valves/piston/head/cam when my exhaust cam was set at 19 pins?

I did have the engine running before I discovered this little surprise, I didn't ride the bike but it has been run for at least a 45 minutes worth of time since I started fixing it up.

Also at the time my compression was a little low which is why i decided to check my shims in the first place. Will this problem now be fixed too?

How can you tell if you need a new cam chain?

-Ryan

[SqDancerLynn1]

Being off 1 tooth would def make a difference with the compression. You are probably Ok If the valves were an easy adj Their should be measurement for chain streatch in the service manual

[first timer]

ok thanks,

i'll probly do the chain this winter, i just don't want to invest to much extra money into it until i log at least 2 miles on it to see if it is road ready.

-ryan

[mark m]

Could major damage been done to the valves/piston/head/cam when my exhaust cam was set at 19 pins?

Maybe, but not likely. Normally if you have your cam chain jump enough (I don't think one tooth will have been enough) to cause damage you will find out in one or two more engine revolutions. Typically, having a valve kiss a piston will bring instant and catastrophic failure. So you probably didn't have that happen.... If nothing hit, then it's no harm, no foul...


Mark